Giant_and_Dwarf-FIN

Giant and Dwarfis not a typical developing country in the world). In 2011 the city of Olomouc donatedmore than CZK 200,000 to support communities living in Rwanda, a country that remainsaffected by the genocide of the 1990s. In talking with representatives of other citiesand towns it is clear that they would be willing to contribute aid but on a smaller scale(e.g. Hradec Králové and Šumperk). For this reason I would like to present this opportunityto create an informal alliance of cities and towns that would be willing to concentratetheir funds in order to complete a number of development or humanitarian projects. Fundscould be collected from the annual budgets of these towns and cities (for example 0.1 %of the budget) or calculated as a contribution from every resident in the city (where everyresident living in the community would give, say, 2 Czech koruna, which was the case ofthe Olomouc’s donation to the project in Rwanda). A contribution can be defined ad hoc,based on the means and the political will of local authorities. These funds could be used(upon mutual agreement) on a specific project or projects completed by a trustworthynon-governmental organization, which is has been involved in professional developmentor humanitarian aid over the long-term.Projects could include operating schools, healthcare centres or a mobile health office,searching for and locating clean water sources (drilling wells), supporting after-schoolactivities for children living on the streets, etc. Residents in participating towns and citieswill be kept up to date on the progress and results of development and humanitarian aidusing a website, local newspapers, press releases and press conferences at various types ofschools, photography exhibitions, etc. This will help create education and knowledge onthemes that transcend the borders of the Czech Republic and the European cultural andgeographical area.Palacky University in Olomouc (Department of Development Studies in the Faculty ofNatural Sciences) would be the project’s coordinator in cooperation with Agentura rozvojovéa humanitární pomoci, o.p.s. (ARPOK—Agency for Development and HumanitarianAid), which has successfully been in operation since 2004 (primarily in the field of developmenteducation and global training). Another option would be to have the participatingtowns and cities form a separate organization that would focus on development andhumanitarian aid at the local government level. This would be a more realistic optionafter a project had been successfully developed.If the Community Alliance for Development and Humanitarian Aid could be established,the participants could leverage this cooperation to make a contribution to thedeveloping world (home to 80 % of the planet’s population)and to grow at the communityand individual levels, not to mention the local government level, meaning towns, citiesand regions.ALOHA is the abbreviated name for the proposed project and is a typical Hawaiiangreeting. We decided this was appropriate as the aid in the form of this project will bedirected towards geographically and culturally distant regions. Every letter of this greetingin Hawaiian has its own symbolic meaning, each of which can be motivating andinspiring for those who cooperate with communities in the developing world.240